Richard III

Richard III

By William Shakespeare.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Dramatis Personae
4. Richard III
   1. Act I
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
   2. Act II
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
   3. Act III
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
      5. Scene V
      6. Scene VI
      7. Scene VII
   4. Act IV
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
      5. Scene V
   5. Act V
      1. Scene I
      2. Scene II
      3. Scene III
      4. Scene IV
      5. Scene V
5. Colophon
6. Uncopyright

Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.

This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on digital scans available at the HathiTrust Digital Library.

The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.

Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.

Dramatis Personae

• King Edward the Fourth

• Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward V, son to the King

• Richard, Duke of York, son to the King

• George, Duke of Clarence, brother to the King

• Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Richard III, brother to the King

• A young son of Clarence

• Henry, Earl of Richmond, afterwards King Henry VII

• Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury

• Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York

• John Morton, Bishop of Ely

• Duke of Buckingham

• Duke of Norfolk

• Earl of Surrey, his son

• Earl Rivers, brother to Elizabeth

• Marquis of Dorset and Lord Grey, sons to Elizabeth

• Earl of Oxford

• Lord Hastings

• Lord Stanley, called also Earl of Derby

• Lord Lovel

• Sir Thomas Vaughan

• Sir Richard Ratcliff

• Sir William Catesby

• Sir James Tyrrel

• Sir James Blount

• Sir Walter Herbert

• Sir Robert Brakenbury, Lieutenant of the Tower

• Christopher Urswick, priest

• Another priest

• Tressel and Berkeley, gentlemen attending on the Lady Anne

• Lord Mayor of London. Sheriff of Wiltshire

• Elizabeth, queen to King Edward IV

• Margaret, widow of King Henry VI

• Duchess of York, mother to King Edward IV

• Lady Anne, widow of Edward Prince of Wales, son to King Henry VI; afterwards married to Richard

• A young daughter of Clarence (Margaret Plantagenet)

• Ghosts of those murdered by Richard III, lords and other attendants; a pursuivant, scrivener, citizens, murderers, messengers, soldiers, etc.

Scene: England.

Richard III

Act I

Scene I

London. A street.

	Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, solus.
Gloucester	Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; Our bruised arms hung up for monuments; Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. Grim-visaged war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front; And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute. But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamp’d, and want love’s majesty To strut before a wanton ambling nymph; I, that am curtail’d of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform’d, unfinish’d, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them; Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to spy my shadow in the sun And descant on mine own deformity: And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover, To entertain these fair well-spoken days, I am determined to prove a villain And hate the idle pleasures of these days. Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous, By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams, To set my brother Clarence and the king In deadly hate the one against the other: And if King Edward be as true and just As I am subtle, false and treacherous, This day should Clarence closely be mew’d up, About a prophecy, which says that g Of Edward’s heirs the murderer shall be. Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here Clarence comes.
	Enter Clarence, guarded, and Brakenbury.
	Brother, good day: what means this armed guard That waits upon your grace?
Clarence	His majesty, Tendering my person’s safety, hath appointed This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
Gloucester	Upon what cause?
Clarence	Because my name is George.
Gloucester	Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours; He should, for that, commit your godfathers: O, belike his majesty hath some intent That you shall be new-christen’d in the Tower. But what’s the matter, Clarence? may I know?
Clarence	Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest As yet I do not: but, as I can learn, He hearkens after prophecies and dreams; And from the cross-row plucks the letter g, And says a wizard told him that by g His issue disinherited should be; And, for my name of George begins with g, It follows in his thought that I am he. These, as I learn, and such like toys as these Have moved his highness to commit me now.
Gloucester	Why, this it is, when men are ruled by women: ’Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower; My Lady Grey his wife, Clarence, ’tis she That tempers him to this extremity. Was it not she and that good man of worship, Anthony Woodville, her brother there, That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower, From whence this present day he is deliver’d? We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe.
Clarence	By heaven, I think there’s